1. Chapter 3: The Guest Experience
•CH 3: The guest experience
The service environment
Service model
Gaps in service
Supplier-customer relationships and total quality

2. Why manage experiences?

3. The Cost of Poor Hospitality
Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. All rights reserved
 Service America! by Albrecht and Zemke).
 96% of unhappy customers are never heard from.
 For every complaint received, the average company in fact has 26 customers with
problems, 6 of which are serious problems.
 Complainers are more likely than non-complainers to do business again with the
company that upset them, even if the problem isn‟t satisfactorily resolved.
 The average customer who has had a problem with an organization recounts the
incident to more than 20 people.
 Customers who have complained to an organization and had their complaints
satisfactorily resolved tell an average five people about the treatment they received.

4. 7/12/2013 4
Possible Levels of Customer Expectations (1/2)
Ideal expectations or
desires
“Everyone says this restaurant is
as good as one in France and I
want to go somewhere very
special for my anniversary.”
Normative “should” expectations
“As expensive as this
restaurant is, it ought to have
excellent food and service.”
Experience-based norms “Most times this restaurant is
very good, but when it gets
busy the service is slow.”
HIGH
LOW

5. THE CUSTOMER…..
 Discuss Johnson and Layton‟s quote
“It is only through the eyes of a customer that definition
of service quality can be obtained.”

6. Customer Defined
 A customer is the receiver of goods or
services.
 This involves an economic transaction in which
something of value has changed hands.
 Internal customers
 Employees receiving goods or services from within
the same firm.
 External customers
 Bill-paying receivers of work.
 The ultimate people we are trying to satisfy.
 End user
 Another term that describes customers.

7. Customer experience?
We are the music makers, and
we are the dreamers of dreams

8. Customer Expectations of Service
 Customer Expectations
 Beliefs about ________________
 Serve as reference points against which performance is
judged
 In evaluating service quality, customers compare
____________of performance with ____________

9. The Service Environment
“Customers do not buy service delivery, they buy
experiences; they do not buy service quality,
they buy memories; they do not buy food and
drink, they buy meal experiences; they do not
buy events or functions, they buy occasions”
Today's‟ consumers are looking for experience;
experience that are personal, memorable and
add value to their lives

13. Flow Experiences
• Happiness
• process of total involvement in life”
• optimal experience”
• the best moments of our lives”
• the state in which people are so involved in
an activity that nothing else seems to
matter: the experience itself is so enjoyable
that people will do it even at great cost
for the sheer sake of doing it”
• Involves stretch/difficult/worthwhile
• Autotelic experiences – intrinsic
pleasures

16. The service model

17. There
Were No
Guest
Towels In
The Room
!!
Don‟t Call
Me Late At
Night
Restaurant
Service
Was Slow
!!

18. • Hotels Are Not Listening To Their Guests.

19. Frequently Asked Questions About
Customer Expectations
 What does a service marketer do if customer
expectations are “unrealistic”?
 Should a company try to delight the customer?
 How does a company exceed customer service
expectations?
 Do customer service expectations continually
escalate?
 How does a service company stay ahead of
competition in meeting customer expectations?

20. Customer
Experience
Management
vs
Customer
Relationship
Management

21. Customer-Driven Quality
Slide 1 of 2
Customer-Driven Approach
Customer driven quality represents a proactive approach to satisfying customer needs that is based on gathering data about our customers to learn their needs and preferences and then providing products and
services that satisfy the customer.

22. Customer Experience Management…
Customer Centric
Give customers what they want
Business Strategy
Make money and beat the
competition

23. Dissatisfiers vs. Satisifiers
Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. All rights reserved
 Discuss Cadotte and Turgeon‟s survey results.
1. Dissatisfiers – complaints for low
performance, e.g. parking
2. Satisfiers – unusual performance elicits
compliments, but average performance or
even the absence of the feature will probably
not cause dissatisfaction or complaints, e.g.
atrium type lobbies

24. Dissatisfiers v. Satisfiers cont’d.
Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. All rights reserved
 3. Critical variables – capable of eliciting
both positive and negative feelings,
depending on the situation,
e.g. cleanliness, quality of service,
employee knowledge and service, and
quietness of surroundings
4. Neutrals – factors that received neither a
great number of compliments nor many
complaints are probably either not salient
to guests or easily brought up to guest
standards.

25. What is the Voice of the Customer?
 The Voice of the Customer
 The voice of the customer represents the wants,
opinions, perceptions, and desires of the customer.
 Quality Function Deployment (QFD)
 “House of quality,”
 Translates customer wants into a finished product
design.

26. Customer-Relationship Management
Slide 1 of 8
 Customer-Relationship Management
 This view of the customer asserts that he or she is a
valued asset to be managed.
 The tangibles meet the intangibles to provide a
satisfying experience for the customer.
 Four important design aspects
 Complaint resolution
 Feedback
 Guarantees
 Corrective action or recovery

28. Customer-Relationship Management
Slide 2 of 8
Figure 3.1
Complaint
resolution
Feedback
Guarantees
Corrective
action
Customer
Relationship
Management
Components of a
Customer-Relationship
Management Process

29. Customer-Relationship Management
Slide 3 of 8
 Complaint Resolution
 Complaint resolution is an important part of the
quality management system.
 Three common types of complaints
 regulatory complaints
 employee complaints
 customer complaints.
 The complaint-resolution process involves the
transformation of a negative situation in one in which
the complainant is restored to the state existing prior
to the occurrence of the problem.
 Complaint-recovery process

30. Customer-Relationship Management
Slide 4 of 8
Complaint Resolution (or recovery) Process
Apologize to
the customer
(contrition)
Compensate
people for
losses
Make it easy
for the
complainant to
resolve his or
her problem

31. Customer-Relationship Management
Slide 5 of 8
 Feedback
 There are two main types of feedback
 feedback to the customer
 feedback to the firm as a basis for process improvements
 Feedback to the firm should occur on a consistent
basis with a process to monitor changes resulting
from the process improvement.
 Some customer data is solicited and other data is
provided without solicitation.

32. Customer-Relationship Management
Slide 6 of 8
 Guarantees
 A guarantee outlines the customer‟s rights.
 The guarantee is both a design and an economic
issue that must be addressed by all companies
before the first sale occurs.
 To be effective, a guarantee should be:
 Unconditional
 Meaningful
 Understandable
 Communicable
 Painless to invoke

33. Customer-Relationship Management
Slide 7 of 8
To be effective, guarantees should be:
Unconditional
Painless to invoke
Meaningful
Understandable
Communicable

34. Customer-Relationship Management
Slide 8 of 8
 Corrective Action
 When a service or product failure occurs, the failure
is documented and the problem is resolved in a way
that it never happens again.
 Corporate teams or committees should be in place
to regularly review complaints and to improve
processes so the problems don‟t recur.

35. Serv.qual models

36. Service Quality Theories
• Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry in 1985 discovered 10 widely
cited service quality determinants, i.e., the basic criteria that
customers use to analyse quality irrespective of the type of service:
reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy,
communication, credibility, security, understanding/knowing the
customer, and tangibles.
• This model identifies the different sources of gaps or differences
between the service quality that a customer expects to receive from
a service provider and the customer perception of the service
actually received.
• The model identifies 5 different types of gaps. The first four gaps are
called company gaps, and the last or fifth gap is called customer gap
- that is, the gap as perceived by customer. The customer gap is the
resultant effect of the four company gaps.

37. Measuring service quality:
SERVQUAL Model
(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985, 1988)
Service
Quality
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
Tangibles

38. Class Discussion
The Five-Gap Model
of Service Quality
Question: Describe ways in which you as
a Manager could use the five-gap model
of service quality
©2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, 4th edition
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Kotler, Bowen, and Makens

39. The Gap Approach to Service
Design
 The Gap
 The gap refers to the differences between desired
levels of performance and actual levels of
performance.
 The formal means for identifying and correcting these
gaps is called gap analysis.

40. The Gaps Model of Service Quality
Consumer
Past
experience
Expected service
Perceived service
Service delivery
(including pre- and post-
contacts)
External
communications
to consumers
Translations of
perceptions into service
quality specifications
Management perceptions of
consumer expectations
GAP 5
GAP 3
GAP 2
GAP 1
GAP 4
Personal needs
Word-of-mouth
communications
Marketer

41. • Not knowing what customers expect
• Not selecting the right service
standards and designs
• Not delivering to service standards
• Not matching performance to promised
Customer
expectations
Customer
perceptions
Reasons
for
Customer
Gap 5

42. Customer’s
expectations
Company’s perceptions of
customer expectations
 Inadequate marketing research orientation
 Lack of upward communication
 Insufficient relationship focus
 Inadequate service recovery
Reasons
for
provider
gap
I

43. Translation of perceptions into
service quality specifications
Management perceptions of
customer expectations
 Poor service design
 Absence of customer-defined
service standards
 Inappropriate physical evidence and
servicescape
Reasons
for
provider
gap
2

44.  Poor human resource policies
 Failure to match supply and demand
 Customer not fulfilling their roles
 Problems with service
intermediaries
Service delivery
Customer-driven service
designs and standards
Reasons
for
provider
gap
3

45. External communications to
consumers
Service delivery
 Lack of integration of marketing communications
 Inadequate management of customer expectations
 Overpromising
 Inadequate horizontal communications
Reasons
for
provider
gap
4

46. Closing the gaps
 Refer to table 4.2, p. 104
 Gap 1: Learn what customers expect
 Gap 2: Establish the right service
quality standards
 Gap 3: Ensure that service
performance meets standards
 Gap 4: Ensure that delivery matches
promises

47. Closing gap 1: Learn what customers
expect
 Use research, complaint analysis,
customer panels
 Increase direct interactions between
managers and customers
 Improve upward communications
 Act on information and insights
listen to
customers

48. Closing gap 2: Establish the right
service quality standards
 Top management commitment to providing
service quality
 Set, communicate, and reinforce customer-
oriented service standards
 Establish challenging and realistic service
quality goals
 Train managers to be service quality leaders
 Be receptive to new ways to deliver service
quality
 Standardise repetitive tasks

49.  Prioritise tasks
 Gain employee acceptance of
goals and priorities
 Measure performance of service
standards and provide regular
feedback
 Reward managers and
employees for achievement of
quality goals
Service Quality Awards

50. Closing gap 3: Ensure that service
performance meets standards
 Attract the best employees
 Select the right employees
 Develop and support
employees
 train employees
 provide appropriate technology &
equipment
 encourage and build teamwork
 empower employees
 internal marketing
Can I
take your
order?

51.  Retain good employees
 measure and reward service
quality achievements
 develop equitable and simple
reward systems
You are a
Star Service
Provider

52. Closing gap 4: Ensure that service
delivery matches promises
 Seek input from operations personnel on what
can be done
 „Reality‟ advertising
 real employees, real customers, real situations
 Seek input from employees on advertising
 Gain communications between sales,
operations and customers
 Internal marketing programs
 Ensure consistent standards in multi-site
operations

53.  In advertising, focus on service
characteristics that are important
to customers
 Manage customer‟s expectations
 What are realistic expectations?
 Explain industry realities
 Tiered service options
 Offer different levels of service - user
pays
Why do we
always have
to wait?

54. Service Satisfaction Information
System
 Customer Complaints
 Surveys
 Employee Surveys
 Focus Groups
 „Mystery shopping‟ research
 Competitive market surveys - benchmark

55. Measuring Satisfaction
 Qualitative Research
 Understand key drivers / determinants
 Questionnaire design
 Data analysis
 Service performance index (SPI)
 Importance - performance analysis

56. Best Practices
 Service Guarantees by Hampton Inns
 Unconditional guarantees
 Specific guarantees
 Implicit guarantees
©2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, 4th edition
Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Kotler, Bowen, and Makens